Only use alphanumeric characters (letters and numbers) and simple punctuation sparingly – e.g., comma (","), parentheses ("(" and ")"), and forward slash ("/").
- Descriptions may contain non-alphanumeric characters
Sentence-case is recommended. This is either all lowercase or uppercase first letter (ie. 'Blue suede shoes').
- Avoid using all uppercase.
- Make exceptions for well known names (ie. EKG, HIV, pH)
For drug names, some people use Tall Man Lettering to uppercase certain parts of drug names that are confused by providers, since this has been proven to reduce medication errors.
Be consistent. Having a consistent naming convention for concepts is a must.
Add standard SNOMED, ICD10, or RxNORM maps to concepts. Do this as part of creating the concept.
- Consistency in naming helps users predict concept names and makes the dictionary much easier to manage.
Always work with your end users to ensure the your concept names make sense to them and match their workflows.
Avoid changing names of concepts that have been used to store clinical data. After the point of data collection, concepts shouldn't be changed as you're then altering retrospective data. It is fine to continue to add synonyms to concepts, where applicable.

Classes and datatypes

Don't create boolean concepts for things like "Cough for last 3 weeks" = Yes/No. Instead have Symptom Present (coded), Symptom Absent (coded), and "Cough for last 3 weeks" (as an answer)
Consider importing concepts (e.g. from CIEL/MVP) when suitable <https://wiki.openmrs.org/x/ww4JAg>

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Avoid making your symptoms & diagnoses concepts boolean; rather, use datatype N/A for these and use them as answers (not questions). This promotes re-use of these concepts.
- POOR DESIGN: a boolean "HIV" concept answered yes/no based on whether or not the patient has HIV.
- GOOD DESIGN: a coded "DIAGNOSES" or "PROBLEM ADDED" concept that is answered with the concept HIV (the HIV concept has datatype N/A).

Modeling diagnoses

Here are some notes/conversations related to concept modeling that may be helpful resources when confronting modeling issues.

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